What kind of performance/speed issue are you experiencing?
· Other
Please try to reboot your Roon Server
· Yes, rebooting helps, but the issue returns after some time
Please try to reboot your networking gear (Router/Switches/etc.)
· No, the issue is still the same even after a reboot
Is there any change in behavior if you try to navigate to Roon Settings -> Library and set both Background and On-Demand Audio Analysis to Throttled or Off?
· No, the issue is still the same
Does the issue happen on multiple Roon Remotes (controllers) or just one?
· Issue happens on multiple remotes
Router Domain Name System (DNS) change
· I was able to change my router's DNS servers but it did not help
What is the operating system of your Roon Server host machine?
· Nucleus
Which model Nucleus do you have?
· Nucleus Rev B
Timestamp of issue occurrences
· It has happened many, many times. The last few minutes ago.
Describe the issue
It's already few months that I'm having issues with my Nucleus Rev B. Basically it'll stop playing after few minutes of usage even if I'm playing local files on my Nucleus through it via the USB output. I've tried rebooting, reinstalling the latest software or relaunching it, but neither of these options are helping.
If the stop happens again, please let us know the exact local time it occurred and what track was playing, and we’ll enable diagnostics on your account so we can review the server activity around that moment. It would also help to know what DAC is connected over USB and whether the music is stored on the internal drive or an external drive.
What is the model/manufacturer of your router, and any additional networking gear? Let us know the above when possible, and we can take it from there, thank you.
First of all I’d like to point out that my experience was fine until the release of RoonServer 2.58 and it has snowballed since then. In the first days of February I’ve posted a message on the Community pages and one user was suggesting to do a Technical Support Request. I haven’t done it since yesterday hoping that a new release was going to solve my issue, but it hasn’t happened.
So I will give you as many info as possible as you’ve requested.
Last time it stopped playing was yesterday evening at 18:43 CET. In that case I was playing a local WAV file on my Nucleus to an AirPlay 2 endpoint (WiiM Mini.)
In terms of connections the Nucleus is connected via USB to a Matrix DDC X-SPDIF3 then via HDMI to the IIS Imput of a Matrix X-Sabre Pro.
And 99 per cent of the time I’m playing files that are stored on my Nucleus Internal SSD Drive (Normally they are 16/44 WAV files.)
About my router is a Zyxel AX6000 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 VDSL2 / 1G Ethernet IAD Route and my ISP provider is Enel Fibra. The average connection ia always about 100Mbps.
Yesterday afternoon after I’ve posted my request I’ve put back to OFF the On-Demand Audio Analysis and it seems that when I’m playing the files through my DAC it has become more stable.
In the last months I’m not using the UI at all, because I’m always worried that it will stop playing, so I’m closing the app straight away after I press play.
Just browsing my album library during playback normally it will stop playing after few seconds!
Hope that this will help you to find out more about my issue.
Hello Noris, here few updates on the behaviour of my Nucleus.
First of all, here’s when I’m playing local files straight into the USB output:
I’ve used it for a couple of hours yesterday morning and a couple of hours in the evening without any stops. This morning instead at 9:22 AM CET it stopped playing for a couple of minutes, stopped again at 9:33 and resumed at 9:41. From the UI point of view it’s in play position but it’s behaving like the player it’s in pause. That kind of behaviour is happening right now again… It seems that is having trouble to upload the file and plays it. At the moment the software is already running for 1 day 1 hour 11 minutes.
If I’m using AirPlay 2 endpoints the situation is slightly worse:
Yesterday afternoon it went in stop mode 3 times. I’m not able to tell you the exact time of the first but the second was at 17:09 and the third at 18:13. What it might be interesting to you is that before the third interruption at every song change was stopping after a couple of seconds, then sound was kind of crackling and deteriorating for few seconds and then back to normal. AirPlay 2 endpoint was a WiiM Mini.
Early this morning I’ve started playing on a Naim Mu-So via AirPlay 2 and it was the same situation as yesterday evening but after two or three songs played with difficulty the player went into Stop position at 05:58.
In general it seems to me that the more the system is running the more the consistency of play is deteriorating. That is why until yesterday I was rebooting the Nucleus every few hours of usage.
Hoping these info will give you more details in what is happening with my Nucleus.
Thanks for the additional information! We were able to further analyze a Roon Server diagnostic report from your Nucleus, and see that your library counts are a bit abnormal:
44,002 tracks, but only 717 albums and 83 artists.
A healthy library is roughly 10–15 tracks per album; yours, by our estimation, is closer to ~60 tracks per album with only 83 artists across 44k tracks.
That points to a metadata/grouping problem or a partially corrupted library database, which forces Roon to re-sort “item-by-item” on every change (the logs literally say re-sorting item-by-item) instead of using fast bulk operations, and this could be the primary culprit behind your issues.
Here are a few next steps in troubleshooting that may help:
Confirm the potential diagnosis first: play to the USB output with your watched-folder storage temporarily disconnected/disabled (I see you have a Tidal subscription synced, if you only play Tidal content). If playback stays stable, the library/storage layer is likely the cause rather than the Nucleus hardware or the endpoints.
The fact that library actions run constantly while idle suggests something is repeatedly editing the library, a watched folder pointing at storage that's churning, a sync tool rewriting file tags, or cloud storage re-presenting files. If your music is on a NAS, network share, or cloud-synced folder, try pointing Roon at a stable local copy and see if the constant mutations stop.
Investigate the track/album/artist ratio. Look at whether a large number of tracks are mis-grouped (e.g., everything collapsing into a few "albums"). Cleaning up or re-importing the problem files may eliminate the expensive re-sorts.
Rebuild the library database (after backing it up). A corrupted index would produce exactly this item-by-item re-sort behavior. Back up first, then try a fresh database and re-import to test whether the same issue occurs.
Let me know how the above go, and if you have any additional questions, thanks @Maurizio_Codini!
I’ve already started to get rid of all the albums containing lots of songs or CDs.
On this matter I have a question. Is it relevant if instead of having multiple subfolders containing several different albums, I will put the folder/album in the compilation folder?
I’m buying some compilations in the UK called NOW Yearbook, so I have in the Roon folder the Compilation Folder a NOW folder, then a Yearbook folder and then inside the various folders with the songs… Hope I’ve explained it well!
Thanks for the update! A fresh Roon Server diagnoistc report shows June 17–18, so they don’t cover the exact June 15 12:10 stop, but they capture the same recurring behavior, and they contradict the information here.
The library was never actually reduced to 4 albums from 4 artists. The format wiped the drive, but because the database and settings were not reset, Roon Server is still carrying the old bloated library and is busy re-importing a large chart-compilation collection. The storage mount currently holds at least 50 album folders, including long runs of monthly chart sets — Hot 100 01-1961 through 06-1961, R&B 01–07/1961, and UK Top 50 01–06/1966. This is exactly the metadata/grouping problem flagged in the thread, still fully present.
The mis-grouping is also confirmed. Distinct monthly compilations are collapsing into single album identities, the logs repeatedly identify “Various Artists - Hot 100 02/1961” with 34 then 48 tracks, and “Various Artists - All Night Soul” with 54 tracks. That’s the ~60-tracks-per-album signature described.
As a direct consequence, the re-sorting item-by-item operation fires constantly, over 1,000 times in several of these log files, because the library index can’t use fast bulk sorting on this structure.
The “9 songs then stop” pattern matches what’s in the logs. Playback halts appear as Track Stopped Due to LostEndpoint / OnPlayFeedback StoppedLostEndpoint, and they’re occurring on the network endpoints (Sonos “Cucina,” AirPlay) rather than the USB chain. The server loses the endpoint while it’s bogged down in re-sort/identification work, the zone suspends, and from the UI it looks paused-but-stuck, exactly the symptom described.
Here are some next steps for you:
Do the database reset that was skipped. Back up first, then reset the database/settings so the index is rebuilt from a clean state rather than carrying the corrupted grouping forward. This is the single most important step and the one currently missing.
Fix the compilation structure before re-importing. The monthly chart folders are collapsing into giant "Various Artists" albums. Each should be tagged as a proper compilation (ALBUM/ALBUMARTIST = "Various Artists", a unique album title per month, consistent year) so Roon groups them as separate albums of normal size instead of merging dozens of tracks.
Isolate the variable. To confirm, test playback to the USB DAC chain (Matrix DDC → X-Sabre Pro) only, with the network endpoints idle, the stops in these logs are all on Sonos/AirPlay zones, so this will show whether USB-only is stable once the library churn is reduced.
Look at the network path separately. The No route to host warnings suggest the Zyxel router or ISP is interfering with Roon's cloud connection.
